Eye Witness Account to Okinawa

This story was contributed by fellow blogger, Mike Tuggle, in tribute to his father, who sailed his final voyage this past Saturday.

My account of the Invasion of Okinawa

By: Clayton C. Tuggle

I was one of the approximately twelve hundred men aboard the USS Birmingham CL-62. We set out for Okinawa in March, 1945.

Clayton Tuggle

Arriving in Okinawa, we were stationed about five miles from shore. We bombarded the island with 6-inch guns at night hitting several ammunition dumps and shore guns of several sizes. This went on until the invasion began on April 1, 1945. This battle was something entirely different from any the Navy had experienced. Torpedoes were exploding all around our ship, the skies were full of explosions from guns on both sides.

On the 5th of May, 1945, I was cleaning officers’ quarters when the captain [John Wilkes] came on the PA system. He said he’d just got word that 300 Kamikaze planes were headed for our fleet. He said, “The odds are against us but, men, for God’s sake, go down fighting.”

USS Birmingham

My battle station was fire control on the 40 mm guns. I received orders from the gunnery officer and relayed the message to the gun crews as per instructions to aim the guns at the oncoming planes. This was done by the radar system.

In my battle station I could see almost everything around our ship. Kamikaze planes were coming in from the port side, some would crash just before hitting our ship, some would be on fire and head for a ship of any size to hit. I saw one ship get hit by two planes at the same time. I saw several planes get shot out of the sky and crash into the sea. Some would fall near our ship.

Our Marines fired the 20 mm guns constantly as planes came as close as 50 ft from us. The sky was full of explosions. After the all-clear signal came, we headed toward the island for more bombardment. About a half-hour later everyone was back on regular duty.

USS Birmingham ripped apart by kamikaze plane, 1945

One Kamikaze having hidden in the clouds undetected by the radar came down. This tragedy killed forty-seven and wounded eighty-one on our ship. One sailor standing next to me was blown away. I never saw him again.

I was down below in officers’ quarters when the chaplain came to me and commanded me to take him topside. He was burned bad and suffering smoke inhalation. I was suffering from smoke inhalation, and something told me to get in the shower and turn it on for air. I stayed close to the shower for about a minute, then I was able to get the chaplain topside. He died three days later on a hospital ship.

I saw mangled bodies all over the deck, arms and legs were everywhere, bodies without limbs. I had known them personally. I walked by my living quarters and heard men screaming as the rescue squad was closing the hatch on them to keep the compartment from flooding. I then walked to the back of the ship and sat down for a while.

I was elected pall bearer as most of them were from my own division and I knew most of them. We were friends. They were all buried at sea.

Burial at sea.

We went back to normal duties. All my belongings had been destroyed, and I was assigned to another division temporarily and started out again as a sailor going about normal duty. We headed to Pearl Harbor for repairs. We were there for three months.

After repairs were finished we sailed to Tokyo Bay. We were preparing to attack, but the Enola Gay dropped some bombs and peace was declared.

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About GP Cox

Everett Smith served with the Headquarters Company, 187th Regiment, 11th A/B Division during WWII. This site is in tribute to my father, "Smitty."
GPCox is a member of the 11th Airborne Association. Member # 4511 and extremely proud of that fact!

A great story! It reminded me of a book I read some time ago called The Ship That Would Not Die … about the USS Laffey. It was another great story about a ship that survived 22 Kamikaze attacks in one battle.

War begins with failed national leadership; it was the case in WWII. Trouble is, these failed leaders don’t go to war themselves. They send youth in their place… but if war is to be fought, it needs to be fought to win. Failed leaders need to keep their mouths shut and their personal agendas locked away. Let the military do their thing as theybare right now.

Agreed, Koji. I’ve had people ask me why we don’t win the wars of today, when this shows just how formidable we can be. I don’t hold back in my reply, so you can imagine my answers because you and I agree!!

Such a spare, powerful account. Sometimes, there just isn’t anything to say. On the other hand, I suspect all of us have had the experience of having to pick up and go on after a traumatic or difficult event, even if it wasn’t nearly so dramatic as this. I think that’s part of the reason we respond as we do to these personal accounts. To one degree or another, we do understand them — and appreciate even more what these men went through.

My uncle was on the USS Hilsman when it was hit by a kamakaze plan… wish he had talked more about it, but I did find a crumpled photo he had of the hole in the side of his boat. Anyone here reading, serve on that boats?

Jeanne, someone is going to tell you to call them ships, so I quickly do that and get it over with. We have quite a few people here from the Navy – I hope you get some answers and thank you for reading. If you recall any story your father did tell you – pass it on.

That dry, matter of fact account is so moving…you can see it all through his eyes.
As others have said, the things that these men saw, and yet they came home and took up their lives again despite it all.

Every time I hear a story like this during an interview with a WWII vet, I’m stunned. ‘How could they ever sleep, marry, raise children well, be productive in their communities, etc. after experiencing all of that? I’d be pretty messed up- maybe forever. And yet the guys I’ve met were kind, sweet, many God-fearing and leaders in society. Makes me re-think my thoughts. Make sense? Thanks for sharing.

I (personally) feel that it has a lot to do with whether they were thinking of others and being strong or feeling sorry for themselves as to how they reacted to those horrifying situations. I appreciate your comment and feelings on this.

My thanks to the many readers who shared their feelings about my father’s short and heartfelt memories about Okinawa. And eternal thanks to GP Cox for the fine work he does on this blog. I can tell it is a labor of love.

It must be terrifying seeing those planes aiming at your ship and knew it’s the end. I got emotional reading all the casualties. He was a brave man to get back to normal after seeing those carnage. Thanks for posting this. It gives us an idea what it was like to be in the middle of war. I salute him and my sympathy and prayers to the family.

There was no time to feel sorry for themselves. They grieved later and them once again, back to work on surviving the war themselves. Of course many ended up with what we call today PTSD and i suppose I should get on a post about that for the end of this blog, eh?

This is just awful to read, and yet he wrote it in such a matter-of-fact manner. I bet even years later he hadn’t really dealt with what he saw that day and writing in that manner was as close as he could get to his true emotions and scars.

The things that Isis have done in Europe are scary enough, but to have each one of them armed with an aircraft and keen to use it is a very frightening prospect. Clayton Tuggle must have been a very brave man indeed.

Makes me want to cry…and so I did.
I don’t know if I shared with you, but last summer while my Dad was dying he, for the first time in my life, shared about his time in the Korean War.
These stories are important…thank you!
❤

What makes your blog so interesting, GP, is the frequent insertion of eye witness accounts such as this one by Clayton Tuggle. These personal accounts highlight the tragedy of war so much better than the dry statistics often found in history books.

A great tribute to Clayton from his son. What a harrowing account of the horrors of war at sea, facing a determined and fanatical enemy. It says much about the character of those brave men that they were able to resume duties after such attacks, and then go on to live good and useful lives after 1945.
Best wishes, Pete.